Monday, May 5, 2014

Michael Carter-Williams Wins ROY, Magic Fans Need Not Care

We knew it was coming, but the Philadelphia 76ers' Michael Carter-Williams officially won the Rookie of the Year award. Magic guard Victor Oladipo finished second overall. MCW won by a rather overwhelming margin thanks to obtaining 104 of a possible 124 first-place votes. Oladipo received 16 first-place votes. Here's the tally of first, second, and third place votes:

Notice how the point system works. 1st place (5 points). 2nd place (3 points). 3rd place (1 point). You can see that Oladipo was the clear-cut 2nd place choice with 364 total points. There were only 2 media members who left Oladipo completely off their top 3. So where did the 16 first-place votes for Victor Oladipo come from? I'll list them all for you:

Some very influential names on that list. There were only two Orlando voters - Neumann and Turner - and both voted Oladipo in first place.

My thoughts on MCW not being the best player of the top two rookies are known. Since that piece, at least MCW got his shooting percentage over 40% by the end of the season. Still, MCW ranked 387th in the league in offensive scoring efficiency. That's a joke. But no need to fret, Orlando, this voting will only motivate Victor even more to strive for greatness.

Every Magic fan should remember that Dwight Howard finished in 3rd place in the '04-'05 ROY voting behind Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, and we know who has had the better career. Tyreke Evans took the '09-'10 ROY with Steph Curry finishing second. I'm pretty sure if there was a poll, that Curry would be preferred by GMs. Look at the '06-'07 season voting when Brandon Roy won. Paul Millsap finished 6th. LaMarcus Aldridge 7th, and Rajon Rondo 12th.

Rookie of the Year is a pure stats award. MCW played more minutes than Oladipo and had more touches and field goal attempts. Victor was more efficient with his fewer touches. Numbers can be inflated when examining just one season, and we'll know who is the best player from this rookie class in a few years time. My money is on Oladipo.